Table of Contents
Contributors
Lynn M. Herbert; Paul Hester; Barbara Koerble; J. Pittman McGehee; Barry Moore; Barrie Scardino; Mitchell J. Shields; Paula J. Webb; and Jim Zook.
Cite 43: Spiritual Spaces
Winter 1999
Editor’s Note
Maybe it's the fact that in a few short months we'll he facing a new millenium. Perhaps it's that the Baby Boomers, that self-absorbed bulge in the nation's demographics, have entered middle age and can see the inevitability of life's end looming before them. Or possibly it's just that the cultural pendulum, having swung deep into secular territory, is ready for a trip back in the other direction. Whatever the reason, there's no question that, after a long hiatus, spirituality has made a comeback, For a growing number of us, it's right there on the front burner, bubbling away, demanding our attention.
This issue of Cite responds to that demand by examining how everyone from architects to artists to priests deal with the concept of ihe divine, a concept that raises a number of intriguing questions. One of the first is the basic question of what distinguishes the sacred from the secular. In the following pages, novelist Paula Webb and priest and analyst Pittman McGehee wrestle with that topic in a far ranging conversation, while Dallas architect Gary Cunningham confronts it in the churches and temples he has designed. A look at how line art can be folded into and enhance religious settings shows another way in which the secular and sacred meet, and how each can influence the other.
Of course, spirituality isn't necessarily limited to formal religion. Many people, Frank Lloyd Wright among them, found spirituality in nature, which in a way makes our update on what's happening in Hermann Park, Houston's largest expanse of natural parkland, fitting. Fitting, too. is the appreciation of S.I. Morris, who many know as the man behind a number of the city's most notable landmarks, but whom I remember for the kindness shown me as a young teenager looking tor her first summer job. It you're looking for the sacred, it seems to me, kindness isn't a bad place to start.
Lynn M. Herbert